Kyrie Irving was at a NY club, as were Nets’ players. But the players disputed the initial reports that they were there together.

Reporting’s often difficult and often involves piecing threads of information together, but when those threads don’t quite all lead to the expected conclusion, it can create some blowback. Confirming A and confirming B doesn’t always equal confirming A+B, something that’s shown up in everything from Watergate to reporting on Adrian Robinson’s death, Deflategate, and DeAndre Ayton. And that happened Thursday with reports of Brooklyn Nets’ players being at New York’s 40/40 club with Kyrie Irving; the Nets’ players in question were at the club, and so was Irving, but they were with separate parties in separate rooms.

Firsthand source says that Kyrie Irving was hanging out at the 40/40 club with Brooklyn Nets players last night. https://t.co/om1HvFXXhE

— Anthony Puccio (@APOOCH) June 6, 2019

This is obviously taking on some extra dimensions thanks to the ongoing discussion about the Nets and Irving, and given the incredible interest in this summer’s free agency period. Brooklyn is clearly building for the future, and Puccio reported back in May that there was “mutual interest” between the Nets and Irving. And Brooklyn’s trade of Allen Crabbe Thursday means the Nets now have two possibly-open max contract slots (or one if they re-sign D’Angelo Russell). And ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski added fuel to that fire Thursday:

Kyrie Irving is serious about the Nets — and the Nets are serious about beating the Knicks — and rest of league — to the biggest free agents in the marketplace, per league sources.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 6, 2019

So, yes, it’s notable if Nets’ players are hanging out with Irving already. But going by the reports so far, this seems to be more just them both being in the same club at the same time. So this looks like another case where A was true and B was true, but A+B didn’t lead to the conclusion many expected.